Unlike Windows applications, few Mac applications come with an uninstaller. AppZapper is a relatively affordable solution that helps Mac users uninstall applications. One license costs only US$12.95.

We became aware of AppZapper’s existence for the first time almost 18 months ago. Initially, we weren’t impressed with it at all. That’s because we could delete any application entirely for ourselves, we thought.

Anyway, you don’t need a user’s manual to use this uninstaller. All you have to do is launch AppZipper, grab the application you want to uninstall and then drop it onto AppZapper’s drop zone. If I drop Adobe Photoshop CS2’s application icon onto AppZapper’s drop zone, I get a list of files that are associated with Photoshop. (See Screenshot 01) So I just click on the Zap button. (See Screenshot 02)

Screenshot 01

Screenshot 02

Okay. Here is our situation. I have Sound Grinder 2.5 installed on my iMac G5. Just for your information, Sound Grinder supports many audio formats and lets you change the audio format of a group of files from one to another collectively. Anyway, the demo period expired for this application a long time ago on my Mac. Sound Grinder is tough to delete. Even after you delete all the files including ones inside Preferences and then reinstall the program, you will probably see the demo expiration message. (See Screenshot 03) Presumably, you have to use the Terminal to eliminate hidden files. Actually, it could be the receipt file that keeps the program existing. Anyway, I turned to AppZapper for help. After dropping Sound Grinder’s application icon onto AppZapper’s drop zone, I got a list of files to delete. (See Screenshot 04) Then I reinstalled the latest version of Sound Grinder. And… Whoa… The demo period has been reactivated. (See Screenshot 05)

Screenshot 03

Screenshot 04

Screenshot 05

The next application I tried to delete is NetBarrier 10.4.2. In fact, NetBarrier comes with its own unstaller. So I don’t necessarily have to use AppZapper. Anyway, I want to see how good AppZapper is. There are many files to delete, actually. If you open System Preferences, there’s a preference pane. (See Screenshot 06) There are a couple of application files including NetBarrier Monitor and NetBarrier X4 inside Applications as well. So I dropped these two application icons onto AppZapper’s drop zone. Thank God, AppZapper trashed a combination of about 10 files and folders. (See Screenshot 07) Then if I restart my iMac… Ughh… AppZapper didn’t delete all the files. I still see NetBarrier’s icon on the menu bar. (See Screenshot 08) And if I search files for “intego” and “netbarrier,” I still find a dozen files that are associated with NetBarrier.

Screenshot 06

Screenshot 07

Screenshot 08

In conclusion, AppZapper works very well if an application doesn’t involve a preference pane. But AppZapper fails very badly otherwise, and you will probably be better off uninstalling an application for yourself.

MacHouse recommendation: AppZapper is an affordable Mac shareware title that will help Mac users uninstall applications. However, our policy is such that we don’t support a software developer who doesn’t reveal office information on its website.

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